Slip-sliding away...

Well, buggers.

We trailered our dinghy over to the Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater, FL yesterday to go out for a little spin. Unfortunately, the ramp was extremely slimy. I slipped on the ramp, sliding further down into the water, scraped my shoulder, left a two inch cut on the bottom of my right foot, and wrenched my right knee. Overnight, it was badly swollen and stiff. And I needed to get a new phone, too. It was in my pocket when I went down into the water and now it is dead.

Just came back from the ER. Woke up about 2:00 am and knew the knee thing wasn’t a simple twist. X-Rays showed a fracture on the tibial plateau. However, the CT scan said otherwise. Doctor feels it is a torn ACL and referred me to an Ortho. Will call tomorrow to set up the appointment. Gave me a tetanus shot and two antibiotics for the cut on my foot and a leg brace and crutches for the knee issue. The Ortho will probably want an MRI. It’ll be interesting to see if there are any ligament tears.


And replaced my trusty-but-waterlogged iPhone 6 with a the new iPhone Xs.

Ugh.

Be careful on those ramps out there!

Sounds like things can only get better. Sorry about your luck and hope you heal soon.

Greetings,
Mr. JE. Sorry for your misfortune but thanks for the "heads up" or "tails up"...


You raise a VERY valid concern for some of the TF members who may not be as nimble as they once were (myself included). Last winter I was walking down our slanted lane, which was icy at the time, and slipped landing squarely on my back. I think the position of my fall is what saved me injury other than a sore back for a week or two. I could have easily fallen crooked and landed on my shoulder or elbow with unknown but potentially injurious results. Ice grippers from now on IF conditions are the least bit questionable. Same goes for footwear on the boat. NOT ice grippers but proper shoes with good soles and at least one hand on the boat.


I cringe when members ask what is the best finish for teak swim steps. Oil? Varnish? Cetol? ALL recipes for slippage IMO. Leave the teak natural please.

Ouch! Low tide on a boat ramp can be very dangerous. Hope you heal quickly.

Ouch. Been there done that.... the results fixed themselves without quack shack interference but it did take a while. Have yet to drown a phone. (Knocks on genuine simulated wood).

Caution on the open wounds. Friend in Tampa had similar accident a couple of years ago & wound up in hospital for a couple of weeks with infection in spine that Drs attributed to aquatic bacteria he acquired at boat ramp. I believe he’d earlier had a disc procedure that possibly wasn’t fully healed.

Oh man. Sorry to hear that! Get well soon!

Ouch, Ouch, OUCH! Heal fast!

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. JE. Sorry for your misfortune but thanks for the "heads up" or "tails up"...


You raise a VERY valid concern for some of the TF members who may not be as nimble as they once were (myself included). Last winter I was walking down our slanted lane, which was icy at the time, and slipped landing squarely on my back. I think the position of my fall is what saved me injury other than a sore back for a week or two. I could have easily fallen crooked and landed on my shoulder or elbow with unknown but potentially injurious results. Ice grippers from now on IF conditions are the least bit questionable. Same goes for footwear on the boat. NOT ice grippers but proper shoes with good soles and at least one hand on the boat.


I cringe when members ask what is the best finish for teak swim steps. Oil? Varnish? Cetol? ALL recipes for slippage IMO. Leave the teak natural please.

Click to expand...

Sperry "Stop Sliders" Err, Top Siders... are a good choice!

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,I cringe when members ask what is the best finish for teak swim steps. Oil? Varnish? Cetol? ALL recipes for slippage IMO. Leave the teak natural please.

Click to expand...

I draw the line at Cetol or varnish on the swimstep but the Deks Olje no.1 oil we use has not been slippery. But, experiences vary.
Beware parking lot plastic strip dividers. I slid on one, in rain, sloping to the kerb.Kept my balance until I hit the gutter, flipped, landed on my back on the gutter right angle edge > compression fracture of the L1 vertebra.

I have had the soles of "Top Siders" age out and get very slippery. This has happened serially on about three pair. Great when new, but...be careful out there.

John, be careful on those crutches! When I was 20 years younger I could fly around on the crutches when I had a knee injury. Now at 65, when I injured my ankle last week in prep for the hurricane, I thought I was going to kill myself on those. Be careful on them. Hope its nothing serious and you heal fast.

koliver said:

I have had the soles of "Top Siders" age out and get very slippery. This has happened serially on about three pair. Great when new, but...be careful out there.

Click to expand...

Were they the "real" Sperry Top Siders... or imo-tread shoes? There are plenty of imos out there. If real Sperry - how many years before wear out? And, if the real ones are wearing out faster these days, then they are being constructed of different materials compared to yester year. Also, keep an eye on soles of any non-skid boat shoe; replace as necessary. $100 +/- bucks for new shoes every couple years is really cheap, help-insurance against potential calamity of falling's results!

Hope it turns out to be scrapes and bruises rather than tears and fractures.


Not sure of the area you are in but if those cuts don't heal well, as expected, get to the Dr. QUICK--if there is any chance of Vibrio in the area.

I concur with the concerns of infection. Broken bones and Iphones are one thing but the risk of infection bothers me the most.

Thanks for the thoughts and concerns, everyone. Seeing the Ortho today at 1:00 for the knee but, yeah, it's the cut on the foot that's really causing me concern. It doesn't feel infected or anything. The ER gave me a tetanus shot and two antibiotics that they said are specifically for fighting bacteria from cuts in salt water (didn't realize there was such a thing). The water at the ramp was nasty-smelling and dirty. Really hoping the antibiotics kick whatever was in that water.

Best of luck, and speedy recovery!

Wifey B: Please please please be obsessive when it comes to the cut and infection and don't accept anyone's answer if you aren't satisfied. It's you who feels it and it's you who will suffer.

I'm so glad just to read you didn't hit your head. That's the most serious injury people often get on slick ramps and ice and other.

Around the water and boats and docks we're all really exposed to a lot of risks and I swear I thought that with age came wisdom but I've seen some older people do some dumb moves that even a kid wouldn't do. I'm not saying the OP's move was one as it just sounds like a horrible accident doing something routine. But please everyone take care and don't try to be macho or whatever the female equivalent is. That one injury can change your life forever as we've seen in some on this site.

JohnEasley, we are in the Seminole area. Red Tide here is bad. Hard to breathe if too much exposure to the water, eyes are red and itchy. Water here is just nasty looking. I have to believe that the Red Tide micro-organisms are not good for open cuts. Look into taking extra precautions. Good luck.


M.

BandB said:

I'm so glad just to read you didn't hit your head.

it just sounds like a horrible accident doing something routine. But please everyone take care and don't try to be macho or whatever the female equivalent is. That one injury can change your life forever as we've seen in some on this site.

Click to expand...

Yeah, me too. My wife already wants to buy me a plastic helmet because I hit my head on things so often.

As you suspected, it was something routine that went sideways. Good reminder for everyone to be extra cautious.

oldhatt said:

JohnEasley, we are in the Seminole area. Red Tide here is bad. Hard to breathe if too much exposure to the water, eyes are red and itchy. Water here is just nasty looking. I have to believe that the Red Tide micro-organisms are not good for open cuts. Look into taking extra precautions. Good luck.


M.

Click to expand...

Thanks, M. That was actually a bigger concern, to me, than the knee injury. An open cut in that water??? Who knows what kind of bacteria might have snuck in. Wife has been treating it with peroxide and neosporin. Doc gave me a tetanus shot and two antibiotics specifically made for people who may have picked up a salt water infection. We’re fighting it. ?

It is one of my greatest hopes to never have to use a boat ramp, ever. No good ever seems to come from it.

I'll second/third the suggestions to stay on top of infections. I had ankle surgery electively to correct loose tendons and years of twists/breaks. The procedure itself went well but subsequent infection seems to have led to reduced nerve sensitivity in that foot. Upside is slippery carpet and dry feet at the recent boat show didn't lead to yet another ankle episode. So, there's that!

wkearney99 said:

It is one of my greatest hopes to never have to use a boat ramp, ever. No good ever seems to come from it.

I'll second/third the suggestions to stay on top of infections. I had ankle surgery electively to correct loose tendons and years of twists/breaks. The procedure itself went well but subsequent infection seems to have led to reduced nerve sensitivity in that foot. Upside is slippery carpet and dry feet at the recent boat show didn't lead to yet another ankle episode. So, there's that!

Click to expand...

A good point that surgery in the best medical facilities carries significant risk of serious infection. Just look at the professional athletes who develop staph infections after surgeries like yours, where the athlete and the team are willing to pay for the best and the athlete represents a huge investment.

Choose where you walk carefully. Choose how you walk carefully. Choose your shoes carefully.

Greetings,
Mr. BB. "A good point that surgery in the best medical facilities carries significant risk of serious infection." I suspect the risk of infection is similar in the second rate facilities as well.

If you use boat ramps regularly, buy some felt soled wading shoes. They give you a much better grip on almost any wet surface. The $40 you spend on them will save you much pain and suffering.

Boat shoes

Art said:

Were they the "real" Sperry Top Siders... or imo-tread shoes? There are plenty of imos out there. If real Sperry - how many years before wear out? And, if the real ones are wearing out faster these days, then they are being constructed of different materials compared to yester year. Also, keep an eye on soles of any non-skid boat shoe; replace as necessary. $100 +/- bucks for new shoes every couple years is really cheap, help-insurance against potential calamity of falling's results!

Click to expand...

Speery, and other boat shoe manufacturers seem to have found a formula for boat soles that start out "sticky" and within a season go hard, forcing replacement, since they become like walking on ice. As a sailboat racer, I require footware the I can rely on to grip a wet deck and the current shoes are awful. I normally race in teva sandals with the white soles, bet even those are getting hard to find.

Slips and falls are no fun. Hope your recovery is quick.

wkearney99 said:

It is one of my greatest hopes to never have to use a boat ramp, ever. No good ever seems to come from it.

I'll second/third the suggestions to stay on top of infections. I had ankle surgery electively to correct loose tendons and years of twists/breaks. The procedure itself went well but subsequent infection seems to have led to reduced nerve sensitivity in that foot. Upside is slippery carpet and dry feet at the recent boat show didn't lead to yet another ankle episode. So, there's that!

Click to expand...

Well... I disagree, regarding ramp use. The good we get each time we go boating, by launching our tow behind Crestliner runabout, is a point in fact. And, yes I'm extremely careful regarding the ramp we always launch on. Nose of the trailer for our boat has a fairly large diamond plate flat surface I stand on to hook or off hook our runabout. And, luckily the ramp also has a very aggressive washboard/web pattern in the concrete, is not too steep and due to being in fresh water as well as it always being used by many outgoing and incoming boats each day... the ramp surface has little to no slimy growth on it.

I will say... that reading this account of slipping-injury on a launch ramp has surely more so keyed my cautionary perception upwards for next time we launch.

Wishing the best outcome for healing quick and as completely as possible.

Ftbinc said:

Speery, and other boat shoe manufacturers seem to have found a formula for boat soles that start out "sticky" and within a season go hard, forcing replacement...

Click to expand...

Not cheap, but I've always found the Allen Edmond's 'Eastport' shoe to remain pliable, for years.

wkearney99 said:

Not cheap, but I've always found the Allen Edmond's 'Eastport' shoe to remain pliable, for years.

Click to expand...

Eastport shoe looks pretty good. TY for the tip. I'd heard of them before but never researched.

Regarding expensive shoe - If someone was to tell me either you pay approximately $150 dollars every couple years... or it is nearly guaranteed you will eventually slip and maybe break a bone... well, we all know my answer... so, what's the question????

Art said:

Regarding expensive shoe - If someone was to tell me either you pay approximately $150 dollars every couple years... or it is nearly guaranteed you will eventually slip and maybe break a bone... well, we all know my answer... so, what's the question????

Click to expand...

In hindsight... no kidding!